ago today was the worst day of our lives.  We are making good progress though.  We had an appointment at the Harborview Burn Clinic last Wednesday.  I am trying to do things to make these journeys a little more pleasant so I thought we could have lunch before the appointment at Six Arms Pub nearby.  My dad and Mo decided to join us to make it even more fun.

Our nurse in the clinic that day was Susan, who has the exact same birthdate as Tom.  We also had Jody, the O.T. that has been with us almost our entire journey.  Tom apparently had an allergic reaction to the Coban wrap (which has latex in it) so Jody had to get creative with the bandaging.  They were concerned enough about the reaction that we were scheduled for follow up the next Tuesday morning.

I am still doing all of the farm chores, and our atrocious weather has finally inundated our fields.

So Thursday I moved the goats in with the sheep and gave half of the barn and the alleyway to the cows.  They really seemed to appreciate it.  Summer was drenched, and they had been standing in wet ground for a bit.

We are back to doing dressing changes, although not as extensive as before (but more complicated).  This means lots of laundry.

This is Summertime on Friday, looking cute.

Sonja had been licking Summer’s face until I tried to get a video.  I thought it was sweet.

On Saturday I spied our first daffodil.  Poor thing is getting battered.

The forsythia is blooming as well.  It doesn’t seem like spring though.

It hailed a lot Saturday, to the point the road looked treacherous.

On Sunday, we treated ourselves to tea at My Cup of Tea, our favorite tea shop.  This is the first time we have eaten there though, and everything was truly amazing.  I highly recommend it.

We have been listening to Jim Ladd (RIP) replays all weekend on Sirius. It has been bittersweet.

On Monday, I made another comfort food meal (after it snowed all morning).  I roasted one of our turkeys, a 7# bird.  I used this recipe but also made Walter Staib’s stuffing using Sally Lunn bread and gravy.  I have long wanted to make Sally Lunn bread so was happy to have the opportunity.

Here’s the turkey roasted with the stuffing inside.

And on my dinner plate.  There was plenty of protein to help Tom heal from his burns.

Today we had to get up quite early this morning to be at the Harborview Burn clinic at 8 AM.  Here are the views from the 8th floor.

We got really good news.  The allergic reaction on his arm is settling down, and the grafted site is healing well.  There was a small amount of fluid collecting under the graft which was drained by the resident physician Dr. Serrano who had assisted with his surgery.  The nurse Chen removed the dressing from the leg, the donor skin site.  It is healing really well too, and there was one small area that bled a little bit. His hand is healing well too, but there are a couple of blisters that Tom had drained yesterday.  He only needs moisturizer and Isotoner compression glove over the hand. He only needs Aquaphor and compression leggings over the leg.  The arm only needs Aquaphor and a compression shirt as well.  He can use his right arm again which is huge.

After the clinic we headed to REI and bought two pairs of yoga pants which compress his leg wound well.  Tom thought he had an Under Armour compression shirt, but he doesn’t so we will need to go shopping for that.  He will need to use ace wrap in the meantime.

We then headed north and noticed some work being done on the Space Needle.  This apparently is an enclosure to allow crew to work on an elevator modernization project.  It looks odd to me.

We headed to Beth’s Cafe, which has long been on my Seattle Bucket list.  It had been closed when I have tried before.  It was wonderful with diner breakfast foods and drawings all over the walls.  The booths are clearly old.  It was comfort food, all over again.

We then headed to the Aqua Theater site where Led Zeppelin played on Green Lake in 1969.

I attempted to recreate the photo of Jimmy Page when he revisited the site in 2018.  I didn’t quite get it right.

We then headed to my grandmother’s grave to bring her forsythia.  It was a favorite of hers.

Then we headed home.  Now Tom can take showers, drive, and use his right arm.  He needs to be really careful though as his healing skin is quite fragile and prone to bleeding with even minor injuries.  He will need to be extra special careful with the sun as well.  But we can cancel our home health nursing and daily dressing changes.  This is huge.  His lips and voice still need to heal, and we have yet another appointment in the Burn Clinic next week.  But real progress is being made!